If your child wakes up on the wrong side of bed, or gets whiney or grumpy it can be a sign of upset feelings under the surface that are causing them to feel disconnected.

Here’s a fun giggle parenting game to playfully add connection and shift your child’s mood. Put some music on if you’re at home, and pretend to phone someone up to order some ‘dancing energy’ for your child. Tell the person on the phone your child’s name.

Then start dancing across the room. Act all out of control, as if you can’t stop yourself from dancing. In a playfully frustrated voice tell your child, ”oh no! They’ve sent the dancing energy to me. This is not right!”

Phone back up, and complain to the person on the phone in a playfully grumpy voice. ”Hey you have sent the dancing energy to the wrong person. Please don’t send it to me, send it to (insert child’s name.” Spell out your child’s name to add emphasis.

Repeat with the person on the phone making all kinds of mistakes. They can send you crab energy, which makes you walk sideways. Or climbing energy, that gets you climbing on the sofa or table, as you frustratedly phone up the person to stop them from sending you the energy and try to send it to your child instead.

As your child laughs, their mood will shift, and the rest of the day should go much more smoothly.